Factors Influencing Social Media Forgiveness Behavior and Cyber Violence Tendency Among Chinese Youth: Moderating Effects of Forgiveness Climate and Risk Perception

Abstract

Over the past years, the issue of cyber violence has gradually become a key focus of social media studies. Most previous studies of cyber violence in social media have focused on superficial behaviors, with less attention given to implicit psychological factors, particularly on forgiveness behaviors and their effects. Based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study selects Chinese youth as the subject of analysis, and specifically examines the factors influencing their social media use forgiveness behaviors and cyber violence tendency. The study finds that empathy, trust, commitment, and anger rumination all positively influence forgiveness intention, and forgiveness intention significantly predicts forgiveness behavior, with forgiveness climate and risk perception playing a positive moderating role. In addition, the end of the structural equation modeling demonstrates that forgiveness behavior significantly predicts the tendency for cyber violence, which is the evidence of the importance of forgiveness behavior on cyber violence that cannot be ignored. This study provides a new path for understanding the causes of social media forgiveness behaviors among Chinese youth, and also provides a reference for emerging variables to mitigate cyber violence.